The AI Research Paper Was Real. the “Co-Author” Wasn't
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:
The AI research paper was real. The "co-author" wasn't:
David Cox, the co-director of a prestigious artificial intelligence lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was scanning an online computer science bibliography in December when he noticed something odd-his name listed as an author alongside three researchers in China whom he didn't know on two papers he didn't recognize.
At first, he didn't think much of it. The name Cox isn't uncommon, so he figured there must be another David Cox doing AI research. "Then I opened up the PDF and saw my own picture looking back at me," Cox says. "It was unbelievable."
It isn't clear how prevalent this kind of academic fraud may be or why someone would list as a co-author someone not involved in the research. By checking other papers written by the same Chinese authors, WIRED found a third example, where the photo and biography of an MIT researcher were listed under a fictitious name.
It may be an effort to increase the chances of publication or gain academic prestige, Cox says. He says he has heard rumors of academics in China being offered a financial reward for publishing with researchers from prestigious Western institutions.
Whatever the reason, it highlights weaknesses in academic publishing, according to Cox and others. It also reflects a broader lack of rules around the publishing of papers in AI and computer science especially, where many papers are posted online without review beforehand.
"This stuff wouldn't be so harmful if it didn't undermine public trust in peer review," Cox says. "It really shouldn't be able to happen."
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